Beholder

"Do you love me because I am beautiful,
or am I beautiful because you love me?"
- Cinderella

hint: look closely.

Illusion

A woman was waiting at the airport one night,
With several long hours before her flight.
She hunted for a book in the airport shop.
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see,
That the man beside her, as bold as could be,
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between,
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.

She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock,
As the gustly "cookie thief" diminished her stock
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,
Thinking, "If I wasn't so nice, I'd blacken his eye!"

With each cookie she took, he took one too.
When only one was left, she wondered what he'd do.
with a smile on his face and a nervous laugh,
He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, and he ate the other.
She snatched it from him and thought, "Oh brother,
This guy has some nerve, and he's also so rude,
Why, he didn't even show any gratitude!"

She had never known when she had been so galled,
And sighed with relief when her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate,
Refusing to look at the "thieving ingrate".

She boarded the plane and sank in her seat,
Then sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise.
There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes!

"If mine are here," she moaned with despair.
"Then the others were his and he tried to share!"
Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief!

- Valerie Cox

Vulnerable

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.
- C.S.Lewis

Monkeybars

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.
- Lao Tzu

I find that I periodically check in with myself and have the same talk with myself... "Self, stop panicking that you won't be able to accomplish everything that you have set out to accomplish. It always gets done in the end. And you know this, so chill out and let go, trust yourself".

While the Lao Tzu quote above is always a nice, easy reinforcement to this discussion between me and me, there are a few others that deserve to sit in its company. All I have to do is read any one of these quotes, and I am reminded that everything always works out for my highest good in the end. Yes, I said always.

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
- Raymond Lindquist

Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.
- Gail Sheehy

Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.
- Author Unknown

Now

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand, and melting like a snowflake.
- Francis Bacon Sr.

Float

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
- Alan Watts

Simple

This morning, as I was reading a New York Times article about Google vs. the Chinese government, I came across something peculiar, a principle called Occam's razor.

Occam's razor is the principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" and the conclusion thereof, that the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one. When competing hypotheses are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selection of the hypothesis that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities while still sufficiently answering the question. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood.

That is an awful lot of scientific speak for suggesting that you should just keep it to the facts. No assumptions or jumping to conclusions. It struck a chord with me. So when I find myself attributing causes behind events (such as why someone hasn't returned my call), I am reminded to stop and ask myself, "what are the facts?" and "would I bet my life on it?" And then I quickly realize that there are an infinite amount of reasons why something may have happened, but all I can conclude has to be based on just the facts. Simple.

Lessons

Life is a series of lessons presented to us until we arrive at our destiny. I believe that our destiny is part of a collective, universal wisdom and energy field.

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Our development towards wisdom is a process of experimentation, trial and error, so it's inevitable things will not always go to plan or turn out how you'd want.

Lessons will be repeated until they are learned.

Learning does not end. While you are alive there are always lessons to be learned.

Magic

Many of us have been taught to be skeptical about anything we can not see, touch, and prove. I have a friend who is constantly questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. It is as if she is trying to disprove something first before choosing to believe it. (something that I too am familiar with)

Many masters have said, "You'll see it when you believe it." In other words, the suspension of disbelief and the willingness not to exercise contempt prior to investigation are requirements for magic to be “real.”

When we are watching a movie or reading a novel, we willingly suspend our disbelief. This allows us to enjoy the ride without reminding ourselves that there is no evidence to support this story line. You willingly suspend your disbelief and temporarily enter a world of ultimate possibilities.

In real life, magic is all around us, but our ability to perceive and use the forces of magic depends on our willingness to be open. No one else can show it to you, only your direct experience and observation can “prove” or demonstrate to you that magic is real.

My goal this week is to practice focusing on my own suspension of disbelief, to be totally open to people and experiences without judgment, so that magic can continue to happen.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that crushes it.
- Mark Twain

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
- Mahatma Gandi

Compassion

Just a couple of nights ago, one of my favorite couples came over for dinner. They brought with them many things such as wisdom, advice, humor, love, support and were selfless with their time (in spite of being in the midst of long days and busy projects with work).

Tonight I learned that one of them packed his bags on a moment's notice this afternoon to hop a plane to Haiti on behalf of Mercy Corps. Neither of them batted an eye. He was gone and she gives him 100% support and holds down the fort for them both.

It found me thinking of the mindset of people like Gene and Christi. So I looked up the word compassion to better understand the text book definition.

Compassion according to Online Dictionary(n.): Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.

I would just make one alteration to this definition to better reflect their compassionate nature. I think in Gene and Christi's case the definition looks something like this:

Compassion according to Gene & Christi (n.): Deep awareness of others and their situation coupled with the desire to selflessly support them from a genuine place of love.

Whether they are helping a friend with a new business or helping others in the face of devastation, they always seem to give of themselves readily. I am vibrating with inspiration and aspiration. Thanks you two.

Edge

If you don’t feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn’t very vital.
- John Irving

Words

By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.
- Winston Churchill

For years, I have been aware of the power of my thoughts. And recently, the power of my words, which are the result of thought (and sometimes the result of not enough thought). I came across this message somewhere (I wish I could remember where).

A word is like a living organism, capable of growing, changing, spreading, and influencing the world in many ways, directly and indirectly through others. I never thought about a word being 'alive' but then I thought of words spoken 3,000 years ago, written down and passed through many generations, and they seem quite alive when read or spoken today, having lived 3,000 years. As I ponder the power of the word to incite and divide, to calm and connect, or to create and effect change, I am ever more cautious in what I say and how I listen to the words around me.

I have given myself the personal challenge to refrain from complaint, and in its stead to speak only of the good that could come from a situation. And so far, it has been manifesting more good.

Endings

Endings seems to be a common theme for the majority of my friends right now. I don't know if it is related to the ending of one year, and the beginning of another, or if there is some other force at work. No one seems to be very saddened by these endings, but rather they seem to be curious about the energy that these endings are producing. It doesn't seem to be an exclusive topic to my little circle either, as today's Daily OM was focused on this exact thing, and it was a nice reminder:

Comfort can be found in the fact that all beginnings are preceded by endings.

Viewing an ending or loss as an opportunity for new beginnings can make moving into a new phase of life a more enjoyable experience. Though leaving a valued part of your life behind can sting, the fact that the future is not yet written means that there are infinite possibilities waiting for you. A period where you are encountering obstacles can be the best time to consider altering your course to create the life you desire. The pain that loss can cause can be the motivation that drives you to discover unknown worlds or immerse yourself in new knowledge. Endings are simply transitional periods that prepare us for the unknown. The ending that affects you today will become the starting point for the next amazing phase of your journey.

Little

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
-Robert Brault

Later

I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re going and hook up with them later.
- Mitch Hedberg

I'm right there with you Mitch.

Someone once told me that just putting your intention out there, that alone is enough. Then simply go about your life, doing the things that you enjoy, that make you happy. Of course you need to be an active participant in order to make your dreams a reality, and when the tasks are clear, by all means follow through with them. But sometimes you need to relax and trust that they will come to you.

Fire

Trees grow better after a fire. It lets the light in.

Essence

When you start to know someone, all their physical characteristics start to disappear. You begin to dwell in their energy, recognize the scent of their skin. You see only the essence of the person, not the shell. That’s why you can’t fall in love with beauty. You can lust after it, be infatuated by it, want to own it. You can love it with your eyes and your body but not your heart. And that’s why, when you really connect with a person’s inner self, any physical imperfections disappear, become irrelevant.
-Lisa Unger, Beautiful Lies

Blossom

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
- Anais Nin